Vexion slowly descended to the ground. Elric stood waiting below, brushing the dust from his clothes.
She looked at him.
"What are you doing?"
Elric let out a tired sigh.
"It's impossible. I don't have enough information to fight you. And the information I do have isn't enough."
He looked toward the sky.
"You can stay out of my reach. Your Battle Pressure weakens me. My clone is too weak to distract you. It can't touch you. It's useless."
After a brief silence, he continued.
"Your vectors make it impossible to break through your defense. Your instincts are too sharp. Even attacking from your own shadow accomplished nothing."
He laughed bitterly.
"Honestly, if I met you on a real battlefield, I'd just run."
Vexion smiled.
"Bravo."
She landed gracefully before him.
"You're Level 17. I'm Level 23. Based on that alone, you were never going to win. I can fight opponents in their thirties without going all out. Our skills are simply a terrible matchup."
She folded her arms.
"So why did you keep fighting?"
Elric opened his mouth.
"..." He hesitated.
"I thought I could figure something out."
Vexion chuckled.
"Don't. You'll die."
Elric scratched his head awkwardly.
"Then what was the point of all this?"
"There were two." She raised one finger. "First. I wanted you to recognize your bad habits. You hesitate. You retreat. You fight exactly the same way whether you know nothing about your opponent, or whether you've already gathered information. That is a terrible habit."
Elric lowered his head.
"...I understand. When I realized hiding wouldn't work, I forced myself to attack. I kept believing there had to be a way."
Vexion nodded.
"When there wasn't."
She raised a second finger.
"Second. You've never learned to judge a battle. You're an assassin. That doesn't mean every fight should be fought. It means every fight should be judged."
She met his eyes.
"If you've tried everything, if you've gathered enough information, and nothing works, do exactly what you said. Run. Live. Fight another day."
Elric let out an embarrassed laugh.
"...It feels shameless."
Vexion laughed.
"Lexa said the exact same thing. Master only asked her one question." She smiled. "'What do you want to do instead? Die?'"
Elric stared blankly for a second. Then burst into laughter. Once he calmed down, he asked,
"So — how are you going to train me now?"
Vexion smiled.
"I honestly overestimated you." She shook her head. "Master warned me. He said the standards we grew up with weren't normal. I thought I understood. I didn't. Not until I fought you."
She looked directly at him.
"So from now on, I'll limit myself. Only Force Vectors. And Battlefield Pressure. Nothing else. We'll build from there."
Elric nodded slowly. For a brief moment, curiosity surfaced.
'Just what kind of place did Master grow up in...?'
He quickly pushed the thought aside.
"If I still can't beat you after that—" He smiled helplessly. "—then I'd really be pathetic."
Vexion chuckled softly.
"I'm glad you finally understand."
Vexion found herself slightly surprised by how quickly Elric had reached the conclusion that he simply couldn't win. It wasn't that she doubted he would eventually realize it.
She had simply expected him to struggle a little longer, to make one final desperate attempt, or throw everything he had into a last gamble.Instead, he stopped. He assessed the battlefield. Then he accepted reality.
A faint smile appeared on her lips.
'That really does suit someone Master would choose.'
Most people viewed retreat as cowardice. Master viewed it differently. To him, a dead subordinate was a useless subordinate. An intelligence agent wasn't expected to kill every target they encountered — they were expected to complete the mission. Sometimes that meant eliminating an enemy.
Sometimes it meant gathering information. Sometimes it meant retreating without leaving a trace and returning with knowledge far more valuable than a corpse.
Master had said it himself. "Winning the mission is more important than winning the fight."
Vexion finally understood why Master had chosen Elric. It wasn't because of his Legendary Skill. It wasn't even because of his potential. It was because of his temperament — patient, observant, able to think even while under pressure.
If Elric couldn't distinguish between a fight that should be won and one that should simply be abandoned, then one day he would throw his life away trying to kill an opponent he never needed to fight in the first place.
That would be the greatest failure of an intelligence operative.
For a brief moment, Vexion wondered — if she herself had possessed a different personality, would Master have ever noticed her? The thought felt strange. She couldn't imagine herself being anyone else.
Everything that had happened in her life, every hardship, every choice, every battle, had naturally led her to where she stood today. And somewhere along that path, she had met a man who embodied overwhelming strength, intelligence, and shameless pragmatism.
Dante.
Someone she couldn't help but respect. In some ways he reminded her of herself. The only difference was that everything about him felt more natural.
Turning back to Elric, she noticed him looking at her curiously.
"Since you trained Lexa," he asked, "did you also limit your strength back then?"
Vexion chuckled.
"Once in a while you'll hear her bragging that she managed to win around forty percent of our matches." She smiled knowingly. "The part she always forgets to mention is that I was only using about 75-80 percent of my strength."
Elric nodded slowly. After a brief pause, another question crossed his mind.
"What about when you fight Master?"
Vexion laughed softly.
"When Master spars with us, he never uses his Mythical Skills."
Elric froze. The water bottle he had just taken from his Shadow Vault slipped from his fingers. It hit the ground with a dull thud.
He stared at her.
"...You're serious?"
She nodded.
"Completely."
Elric slowly stood up.
"You're telling me — Master fights both you and Lexa — without using a single Mythical Skill?"
"Yep."
She nodded once.
"The two of us."
A second nod.
"At the same time."
A third nod.
Silence.
Elric simply stared at her. His mind struggled to process the thought. Both of these monsters, together, and Dante didn't even consider using the abilities that made him Mythical. Then just how terrifying were his Legendary Skills?
Vexion could almost see the question forming inside his head. She smiled.
"Don't think about it too much."
She turned and walked several paces away before stopping. Looking back over her shoulder, she raised a hand.
"We're continuing."
She smiled faintly.
"You'll find out soon enough just how terrifying Master's Legendary Skills really are."
Elric swallowed. For the first time since joining Dante, he wasn't sure whether he was excited, or terrified.